Critics: India Unprepared for Monsoons

Flood affected women queue for food outside a relief camp in Kamrangirchar, outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh, Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2007. More than two weeks of monsoon rains across much of northern India, Bangladesh and Nepal have flooded rivers, inundated plains and killed at least 390 people and stranded some 19 million more, officials said. (AP Photo/Pavel Rahman) (Pavel Rahman - AP)

Other officials in Bihar agreed, saying not enough embankments were built to prevent rivers from flooding. They also said wells were not protected, allowing water sources to be contaminated, and no evacuation plans were in place.

"There is a flurry of activities during floods and once the flood waters recede, the department goes into deep slumber," said a senior official in the Bihar water resource management department, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of losing his job.

Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi struck back at the criticism, saying the state's lack of preparedness was due to years of neglect during Devi's three terms as the state's chief minister.

Similar situations exist in other Indian states affected by the floods.

In Uttar Pradesh, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party has called for a demonstration Friday to protest the state of the embankments, which crumbled under the flood waters, and the poor relief effort, which they said left millions without food and medicine.

Attempts to airdrop clean drinking water to victims there were called off after the packets kept bursting.

But federal Home Minister Shivraj Patil said the state governments were doing the best they could.

"Tasks like these are always formidable. Whatever the state governments are doing is according to the circumstances. The more that is done, the better," he told reporters, while promising more money for disaster preparedness.

India's problem appears to be one of political will, not resources. The country is much richer than Bangladesh, an impoverished nation of 150 million people that lies on the Ganges River delta and has been repeatedly ravaged by floods.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who toured the flooded areas by helicopter Tuesday, asked the federal government for some $790 million in assistance. Of that, nearly all was earmarked for compensation and reconstruction, with little for prevention.

What little preventive steps have been taken have come from international aid groups like the British aid agency Oxfam and U.S.-based Catholic Relief Services, which have been working on a community level to prepare villages for the annual flooding.

Working with local groups, they have mapped out villages to look for weak points, found places of refuge and set up rescue teams "so they can better prepare for the next time disaster comes," said Jennifer Poidatz, the head of Catholic Relief Services in India.

But their efforts are on a small scale, she said, and the government needs to take greater steps to really make an impact.

"Getting that larger commitment is critical," Poidatz said. "Systems exist on paper but implementation does not happen for various reasons."

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Associated Press reporter Farid Hossain in Dhaka, Bangladesh, contributed to this report.